Rococo Cartouche with Cherubs
Medium
Ink and yellow
Dimensions
8-3/8 x 10-1/4 in (21.2 x 26.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.124
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this *Rococo Cartouche Cherubs* is a 18th-century ink and yellow drawing by an anonymousolognese artist. Measuring just 8-3/8 x 10-1/4 inches, it exemplifies the ornamental flair of the Rococo style, which flourished in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region around Bologna. Cartouches like this—elaborate, scroll-like frames—were popular decorative motifs for architecture, furniture, bookplates, and silverwork, often enclosing coats of arms or inscriptions with playful exuberance. The artwork's cherubs, those chubby, mischievou...